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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 14 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 4732 ..

Ms Horodny: What is the point, Mr Humphries?

MR HUMPHRIES: There is a stony silence from Ms Horodny on that subject. Perhaps you live in an area of Canberra which is well serviced with large supermarkets. There are no supermarkets of any significant size - by current standards, I mean - in South Canberra. There are none of those in South Canberra. I dare say that the supermarket at Manuka now, Woolworths, is the largest supermarket in South Canberra. A supermarket of a major chain consisting of about 1,800 square metres is tiny. What is more, when you visit the supermarket you realise that it is tiny. It does not service its market very well. The people who try to shop there - - -

Ms Horodny: So you have made that decision, based on what?

MR HUMPHRIES: No, it is not just my assessment. You speak to any trader at Manuka and you ask them. I am not proposing to have a dialogue with Ms Horodny. Ms Horodny, with great respect, has not spoken to the people who have been directly affected by this process. Ask any trader at Manuka what they think about the operation of the Woolworths supermarket there and they will concede, I am sure, that it simply is not a very effective supermarket. That is bad for the people who operate it, Woolworths; but it is also bad for the customers of that supermarket. The suggestion that there should be a capacity to have a supermarket of a size more capable of serving the needs of the people of South Canberra is a reasonable suggestion which this Government is prepared to take up.

Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, it was not, however, just to meet the needs of supermarket proprietors and their customers that the Government took the decision to facilitate a process of, once again, expressions of interest in respect of section 41 at Manuka. It was also because of the very real need for infrastructure upgrade at Manuka. Ms Horodny might not care about the customers of Woolworths or other supermarkets in Central Canberra, but she does not need to walk around very much in Manuka to realise that there are some severe design problems at Manuka as well, particularly Palmerston Lane. Beyond the problems with Palmerston Lane and Flinders Way and the general configuration of the areas around Manuka, there is also an overpoweringly significant problem with car parking.

I would suggest to Ms Horodny that when she rises to close the debate in this matter she make some attempt to explain to the Assembly how she would solve the problem of car parking at Manuka. The fact is that Ms Horodny can criticise from her very comfortable chair over there on the crossbenches, but at the end of the day it is the government that has to face up to the problem that there is not enough car parking at Manuka. We have the responsibility, as the government of the day, to try to find a solution to that problem. The solution we have elected to explore is that we should call for expressions of interest in the use of a number of development rights on section 41, such as to permit someone to be able to establish more car parking spaces along with other more profitable development rights that would provide for the capital cost of establishing that car park.

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